(eternity) democracy is a bad idea on the net too! (fwd)

[Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 20:26:51 GMT
> From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
> Subject: (eternity) democracy is a bad idea on the net too!

> Markus Kuhn wrote:
> > The main research aspect of this project is the joint administration of
> > such distributed archives. For spam protection, you still need people
> > who decide, which files are allowed on the distributed server
> > infrastructure, and which are not. 
> 
> I think a better deciding factor of which files remain and which don't
> is hard, anonymous ecash.  Allow the author, or server to charge for
> storage, and charge for access.  Allow readers to contribute ecash to
> the continued existance of a data.  Throw the lot together and let
> profit maximisation sort the rest out.

There is some window for abuse in this method. It allows a well endowed
entity to bias the information available. There is also the question of data
degredation, in the sense of worth, over time versus the archival/historical
worth of the data. Two major negatives to a free-market approach that are
never discussed.


    ____________________________________________________________________

           If I can put in one word what has always infuriated me
           in any person, any group, any movement, or any nation,
           it is: bullying
 
                                                Howard Zinn


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